


Danaganronpa / Love Live! AU Chapter 5

by STARRY_RlN



Series: The Killing Idol Festival [5]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Crossover, F/F, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Multi, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 18:36:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13507431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/STARRY_RlN/pseuds/STARRY_RlN
Summary: The fifth chapter of my Love Live / Danganronpa AU!here's the usual reminder to read the earlier chapter first since they'll be spoiled in this one!





	Danaganronpa / Love Live! AU Chapter 5

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter was finished a lot sooner than I expected honestly! It's probably sue to me getting a ton of motivation to write one day and I wrote about 40 pages in one day
> 
> for anyone curious about the numbers (a.k.a no one), this chapter is 81 pages and 110773 characters

**_CHAPTER 5_ **

**_The Sea’s Pleas are Never Heard Inland_ **

 

The sudden revelation of Umi’s knowledge of the mastermind was unsettling. It had split us in half. Those trusting Umi, and those not. Other than that we were left with one other truth, the truth that nearly half of us were gone. Only 10 remained and 8 had already died. Honoka. Kotori. Kanan. Eli. Yoshiko. Nico. Hanamaru. And Nozomi. They were all gone.

“I already said it before, I understand if you don’t trust me anymore, I know who the mastermind is but I can’t tell you. Hate me if you want, just please don’t think of me as a villain or something. I hate this situation too! I just ran into an incident which exposed them to me and that’s how I know. But if I were to tell who it is I would be killed on the spot to protect their identity.”

“But wait… there’s no rule against revealing the mastermind’s identity, so Monokuma wouldn’t be able to kill you!”

“And we could just go to that one place and they wouldn’t even know you exposed them!”

“No, that wouldn’t work Kayo-chin, Mari. Kayo-chin, there’s someone else other than Monokuma who would be able to kill her, and Mari, there’s a reason we can’t do it like that, Maki and Chika can tell you if you don’t believe me!”

“She’s right, if we were to try to do it that way then I’m certain you would still die. Even if I don’t trust you Umi I still don’t want you to die, you’re important now and I don’t want any of the important people here to die. It’s already enough of an issue that Nozomi went and killed Hanamaru.”

“Maki, I’ve been meaning to ask since you’ve mentioned important people a few times before, who do you think is important? You’ve mentioned Chika and Umi now, is there anyone else?”

“Good question You. Of those of us left I’d say the only other person is Dia.”

“Huh? Why me?”

“Simple, because you’d be the hardest to kill.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Why’s sis the hardest to kill and why does that make her important to you?”   
“She’d be be hardest to kill because not only is she smart and strong, but also there are very few people who don’t pretty much adore her. The only one I think would be capable of killing her would be Rin but Rin would never want to kill her since she doesn’t stand much to gain and she has so much to lose from doing that. She would lose Hanayo afterall.”

“So basically you’re saying I’m unkillable here.”

“Not unkillable, just by far the most difficult, even Ruby could do it if she planned it out well enough.”

“Hmm, well since you said that wouldn’t it make sense for people to want me dead more since you made me out to be so tough to kill?”

“Of course. I won’t out the second hardest for their sake, but you asked why I considered you important and I answered.”

“Well, I’m still starved from not being able to eat for three days, I’m going to go grab something to eat before Nighttime starts.”   
Dia left the Commons Area and our attention returned to Umi once again.

“So, Maki, Mari, Riko, and You, even if you decide not to trust me anymore I hope you won’t hate me too harshly. I truly do hope we can all escape from this place!”

With her words Umi left as well, along with most of everyone else. The only one left was Ruby.

“Hey, Ruby, what’s wrong? Don’t you want to eat with Dia?”

“N-No, it’s ok, Dia was feeding me whenever I was asleep so I’m not really hungry… But I’m scared…”

“Huh? Why are you scared?”

“Well now that Maru and Nozomi are gone Dia’s the only member of AZALEA left.. And CYaRon is still all together… I don’t want anything to happen to me or you or You! There are so many people I care about and I don’t want any of them to get hurt… But I know it’s more likely than not at this point… We just lost Maru and now we have 6 members of Aqours and 4 of μ’s left. Soon enough we’re going to get another motive and someone else is going to die! Then we’ll go down to just 8 people left. I don’t want to die! I don’t want anyone else to die! I just want us all to be able to leave already! Why should we all be forced into a situation like this where we have to kill each other! It’s horrible!”

“You’re right Ruby, it is horrible, and that’s why we have to do our best! We have to all trust each other and Be friends, we have to forge bonds so strong that no motive Monokuma could ever think of will ever break them! We have to make it so that Riko, You, Mari, and Maki can all trust Umi. That’s the first step we have to take for us all to stay here happily!”

“Y-Yeah! As long as everyone trusts each other we can find a way to get out of here! We need to escape and have proper funerals for the eight that we’ve lost! Well, since nighttime is getting close I’ll go see if sis wants to stay in my room or hers tonight!”

With that, Ruby ran out of the room. There are two things for me to do now, continue my promise to Eli and check on Riko.

I went to the center hall and saw that the door to Management was still gone. Maru and Nozomi had both had their rooms sealed as well. Since there wasn’t much else to do there I went to the Courtyard to check on Riko, but she wasn’t there as I had expected her to be.

What I did notice however, was how clean everything was. There wasn’t a speck of blood anywhere. All the singed grass and trees looked perfectly healthy, as if they were never damaged in the first place. It almost hurt to see, every bit of Maru had been taken out of this room. There wasn’t a speck of her left to see. To remember her by.

I couldn’t help myself. I started to cry. This was too much. Everyone was disappearing around me and I had no way to know who was next. Everyone was leaving us. Everyone was being taken from us. Everyone was gone. Gone. They’re all gone. There’s nothing left. Eventually I’ll be all alone, or maybe I’ll be taken from everyone else. Who can even say? Nobody knows who’s going to be taken next except for Monokuma and the person who decides to take them from us and become the blackened. Umi knows who it is that controls Monokuma, she knows who knows everything. But she can’t tell us who it is, otherwise she’d die. And it would be awful for us to sacrifice her for that information. It’s likely she’d be killed before she could let that information come out anyways. There’s just nothing we can do. All we can do is wait for Monokuma’s motive and then someone will be stupid enough to kill for the motive and there’s nothing we can do to stop it! There’s just-

“Huh? Ch-Chika? What’s wrong? Why are you on the ground crying?”

“H-Huh..? Oh, You, hi, i-it’s nothing, don’t worry about me.”

“Of course I’ll worry about you Chika! I don’t want to see you upset and crying like this! Is there anything I can do to help?”

“...”

“Please Chika, tell me what I can do, I want to make you happy, as your partner I want to keep you happy to the best of my ability, so please!”

“... Then bring everyone back, bring back Maru, bring back Kanan, Eli, Nico, Yoshiko, Honoka, Nozomi, Kotori, everyone, bring them back, bring them back bring them back bring them back!”

“Ch-Chika… I would if I could… but bringing back the dead is impossible, isn’t it?”

At that word I broke down again. That’s right. They weren’t just taken away… All of them, all eight of these girls who I loved, who I cared about and admired, they’re all dead… There’s no way for them to come back…

“Ch-Chika! I-I’m sorry, I- er, I don’t know what to do! Please Chika, you’re ok, nobody’s going to hurt you as long as I’m here! I won’t let anyone hurt you!”

Suddenly I felt a force against my back. It was You’s entire weight pressing down on top of me in an embrace. She was holding on to me. Protecting me. The two of us ended up laying there for who knows how long. I just cried and cried as she held onto me. She was right, as long as she was here, at my back, by my side, I would be safe. You’s taken it upon herself to protect me, and I’ll always cherish her protection.

 

But that was just a naive thought. In a world like ours there’s no such thing as true safety. Anything can happen and the world can instantly come falling apart around you.

 

After a while I stopped crying. My eyes had run dry and I’m sure they were red and puffy. But I managed to get up from the ground and You got up alongside me.

“S-So… You, what brought you here to the Courtyard?”

“Well, I had figured that Riko would be here painting Maru and Nozomi’s pictures. But I guess she isn’t.”

“Yeah, I thought she’d be here too… Where else could she be painting them?”

“I’m not sure… Maybe we should look around until we find her? It would make more sense than sitting around thinking, right?”   
“Yeah, you’re right, let’s go You.”

The two of us left the Courtyard and started looking around for Riko, until we eventually found her in the Exercise Room.

“Hey Riko! What are you doing in here? We thought you’d be in the Courtyard.”

“Oh hi You, I just, I figured that nobody would want a red canvas to be how we remembered Maru, you know? And this is where she was actually killed, wasn’t it?”

“Oh, so you were going to paint hers as her being on the bench after she was crushed by the weight?”

“Exactly! I just think that her condition was too gruesome when we found her. I don’t want us to have to look at that every time we want to remember her, so I decided to paint hers in here instead.”

“That makes a lot of sense! You know, you can be really thoughtful Riko, I’m glad you’re so sweet.”

“Eh? Stop it You! You’re embarrassing me!”   
“Ehehe, that’s the point!”

“Um, hey, since we’re alone just the three of us is it ok if I ask you both a question?”

“Huh? Why do you look so serious Chika?”

“W-well, I was wondering why the two of you were on the side you’re on…”

“What do you mean side? Are you ok Chika? You can be honest with us.”   
“I mean why don’t you two trust Umi? She’s done nothing to hurt us aside from trying to protect Nozomi, and she cares about us all so much. I don’t want any of us to be unable to trust each other or we’ll get brought into another killing and another trial and I couldn’t bear for something like that to happen to one of you two!”

“Ch-Chika… We’d never kill anyone! Didn’t we make a promise? As long as we’re all together we won’t let anyone of us be killed! And that includes ourselves being killed by Monokuma!”

“You’s right Chika! We won’t kill anyone as long as we’re together! The three of us will stay together until this game ends!”

“You’re ignoring what I’m trying to say though! Why aren’t you trusting Umi? What is it that makes you unable to believe that her heart is in the right place? Please, just tell me what you can’t trust about her!”

“W-Well that’s-”

“It’s because she knows who the mastermind is but can’t tell us, doesn’t that seem a little convenient? I can’t bring myself to trust someone in a situation like that, even if her heart is in the right place.”   
“Wait You, what do you mean even if her heart is in the right place? You do think she’s still good?”   
“Of course Chika! I wholeheartedly believe that Umi cares about us all, the reason I can’t trust her despite that is because what if she’s being ordered around by the mastermind? What if the mastermind could tell her ‘Kill this person, they’re interfering with the game too much,’ what if you were killed by Umi because you’re so impactful to everybody’s morale in this place?”

I had to sit on a bench, I could hardly stand after that. You was right, that could be the case, but it could also not be the case, right? So even with the possibility I’ll still believe in Umi! She put us before herself in the trial already, she could have lied and said it was her instead of Nozomi, she could have convinced us that was the case in order to protect her secret, but she didn’t, she told us Nozomi’s truth and had her secret exposed. I’m sure she wouldn’t go and do the exact opposite, sacrificing the rest of us for herself, right?

My thoughts were interrupted by a tone in the corner of the room, followed by the most obnoxious voice in the hotel.

“This is an important Hotel bulletin. It is now Nighttime, the Cafeteria, Central hall, and Exercise rooms are now off limits.”

“Well, it looks like we have to leave anyways, come on Chika, You. Let’s try not to fight over this again tomorrow, okay?”

“I don’t want to fight, I just want you to be safe…”

“I know, come on, let’s go…”

You and I followed Riko back to my room and went inside. The three of us quickly went to sleep without talking much.

 

“This is an important Hotel bulletin. Nighttime is now over, I hope you all have a bea-utiful day!”

We were woken up by the usual alert and slowly got out of bed, though You went straight to her room.

“D-Don’t worry about it Chika, I’ll try to talk to her and see if I can get her out of this.”

With that, Riko left as well and I was alone. I got dressed and as I was walking towards my door I heard a knock. I opened it to see someone I didn’t quite expect, Maki.

“Chika, meet me in the Baths, Rin and Umi will also be there so don’t worry about me trying to kill you.”

She left before I could say anything, but I guess she wants to talk to me about something. I didn’t bother waiting and followed her.

“Good, you’re here, so let’s cut right to business.”

“Why’d you call me here? You said you didn’t trust me after the trial so I’m confused as to why you wanted me to come.”

“I wasn’t going to invite you at first, but then I saw a change in the rules of the game.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

Rin didn’t wait for an answer before opening her Monobook and reading something from it.

“Rule 15: A single blackened may not kill more than two other residents.”

“Nyeh? What’s that supposed to mean!”

“It means exactly what it says, one person may not kill more than two people.”

“Maki, how did you come to realize this rule was here?”

“I’ve been checking the rules after every trial in the event that there’s been a change, this is the first time one has been important enough as to affect me.”

“Well I guess I’m just here as an extra person then, is that right?”

“Yes, but not only that, you’re also the topic which I am concerned of.”

“What? Are you going to try to convince me and Chika not to trust Umi? Well it won’t work! We’re going to trust her!”

“I know that, I’m just going to tell you something that I’ve already told you, I’m hoping to put you at ease about her.”

“Huh? What do you mean? You didn’t trust her before, so why are you saying that she is trustworthy now?”

“Simple, I was lying.”

“Huh? Why would you lie about something like that?”

“Because if the others all knew I trusted you then they may think something is up between us, afterall I’m probably the least emotionally driven person here. They would ask me why I trusted her which is something I’m not yet willing to talk about openly.”

“Oh I get it! You’re talking about the traitor!”

“Wh-What? What traitor?! Rin, you can’t think I’m some kind of traitor just because I know who the mastermind is!”

“Geez Umi, try to follow the conversation better, I’m saying that despite that it’s impossible for you to be the traitor. Chika, can you think of why that is?”

“H-huh? W-well-”

“Think about what I’ve told you about the traitor, and how they can be narrowed down.”

“Um, Well, you said they had to be a member of Aqours and it was impossible for it to be me. So of the people left the only possibilities would be You, Riko, Dia, Ruby, and Mari.”

“Exactly, you didn’t have to go into naming who exactly it could be but since it has to be a member of Aqours it can’t be Umi.”

“Oh! So you’re telling them that even though I know who the mastermind is-”

“They have no influence over you, meaning that the mastermind can’t tell you to kill anyone, or give you commands, it would go against the game’s structure. There can only be one traitor and the traitor can’t be changed during the game, that’s what I’ve been able to gather about them, so there’s no way Umi could be the traitor, there’s nothing the mastermind could do to influence her actions beyond a motive.”

“Alright, I understand, I’m glad you trust me too, Maki. That just leaves Mari, You, and Riko…”

“Um, I actually don’t think Riko really distrusts you, I think she’s pretty much neutral in this.”

“Oh! Really? Ah… It’s good to know that even though you were all split down the middle I’m still trusted by almost everyone…”

“So we only have to convince Mari and You to trust Umi and we’ll have everyone trusting each other, right?”

“Yeah, those two are the only ones who don’t trust her at this point.”

“I think I should be able to win over You pretty easily knowing that Umi can’t be ordered around by the mastermind!”

“No, you can’t tell her.”

“H-huh? What do you mean?”

“I mean that telling her would put both you and I at risk. You can’t tell You, there’s a possibility that she’s the traitor and if she is, she would likely be ordered to put a stop to my searching. And if you didn’t tell her I was the one who found that info then you would be the target instead. Do you understand?”

“So you’re saying that after being given the information that would make You able to trust Umi I can’t tell it to her?”

“Well, you can always tell her that Umi can’t be ordered around by the mastermind, you just can’t tell her why that is. You can’t let anyone in Aqours know that there’s someone who’s a traitor.”

“Wait, is this traitor what you were talking about earlier that makes it impossible for me to tell you all who the mastermind is in here?”

“Yes that’s exactly it.”

“Then doesn’t that mean there’s nothing stopping me from telling the three of you right now?! Is there any issue with if I were to tell you all who the mastermind is right now?!”

“NO, DON’T DO IT.”

Maki wasn’t one to raise her voice like this that often, but she seemed panicked. There was something else stopping Umi from saying who it is, I’m sure of it.

“Wh-what’s wrong Maki, I don’t see why I can’t say it! You said the traitor can’t be Chika and has to be a member of Aqours, right? So none of the people here can possibly be the traitor!”

“No, there’s more that you’re not understanding. I can’t go into detail, but it’s not safe anywhere. You can’t tell us who it is or you’ll die.”

Maki looked directly at Umi as she said all this, I could tell she was serious.

“A-Alright… I was hopeful for a moment… But if you say it’s unsafe I won’t do it, I’ll put my trust in you.”

“Alright, well if you all understand I’m leaving.”

Maki left the Baths and Umi soon followed. I was left in the room with Rin and a whole lot of tension.

“S-so… Chika, what do you think we should do…”   
“I’m not sure… I’m a little scared to go talk to You…”   
“Well maybe you should talk to Mari instead then! Or if you want I can make more ramen for you, You, and Riko!”

“That’s sweet of you but I think I’ll pass, I’ll go talk to Mari instead, I’m curious what she’s been up to. She’s been a bit of a loner since Kanan died so I want to make sure she doesn’t feel alone!”   
“Alright, I’ll see you later Chika! But I will make you ramen today whether you want it or not!”

“Hehe, are you sure you’re not just looking for an excuse to make ramen, Rin?”   
Rin ran out the door without answering and I knew I was right. Mari said she had made a shrine to Kanan in the Stage, so I guess that’s where I should look for her.

 

When I walked out of the Baths I had seen exactly who I was looking for, Mari.

“Oh hey Mari! What’s up? I was just about to look for you.”

“Well now that everyone knows I guess there’s no problem with me talking about it, I was going to the altar I built to Kanan.”   
“Oh, well, can I come with you?”   
“Sure, I don’t mind I guess.”   
I walked down the hall with Mari and went into the Stage. She jumped on top of the stage itself and I followed, she led me behind the curtain and I saw… nothing.

There was no altar or anything. I was about to voice my confusion when Mari opened the control panel for the curtains and I saw it. She had taken out all the wires and controls and inside the panel was a small altar to Kanan with a picture of Kanan, Dia, and Mari together in their swimsuits. This must be a picture Nozomi had taken when the four of them as well as Eli had gone to the pool together.

“This is my altar to Kanan. I didn’t want to have to see the painting Riko had done of her corpse to be what I saw every time I wanted to pay my respects, so I made this instead.”

“O-oh, that makes sense…”   
“Don’t sound so down Chika, i-it’s fine. What did you want to talk to me about?”   
“O-oh, right, well I just wanted to make sure you weren’t feeling lonely.”   
“No, I’m fine, I’ve been trying to get back into the swing of things with everyone, I’ve just had a little trouble is all.”   
“Alright, if you say so Mari. Now’s probably as good a time as any to get closer to Dia and Ruby again. Ruby probably needs all the comfort she can get now that Maru’s gone.”   
“You’re right, I was with them before I came here. Ruby’s handling it a lot better than I expected. She’s gotten a lot stronger. I wish I could say the same about myself…”

“Don’t say that Mari! You’re definitely strong! Think about Nozomi, she killed Maru and went back to Eli, but you’ve been able to keep living, you’re living with Kanan’s memory rather than taking the easy way out and killing someone so that you die as well. I think you’re really strong! And really admirable as well!”

“Y-you really think so Chika? That’s nice to hear, thank you, you’re really amazing, you know that?”

“Ehehe, thanks Mari, you’re amazing too! Don’t forget that!”

“Alright, I won’t Chika, I’ll see you around then.”

Mari closed the panel, sealing Kanan’s altar once again and left the Stage. I looked back at the covered panel again and gave a small prayer for Kanan before leaving the Stage as well.

As I left I was approached by Rin.

“Hey Chika, I just saw Mari smiling, what happened?”

“Nothing really, don’t worry about it.”   
“Okay, well come on! I kept true to my promise and made ramen! I already called You and Riko down to the Cafeteria so you’re the last one who needs to come down!”

“Alright! Let’s go then.”

Rin took my hand and dragged me off down the hall, her ramen was really good last time so I’m sure it’ll taste just as great now.

“Here we are! Go sit down with them and I’ll bring it out for you all!”   
Rin let go of me and went into the Kitchen as I sat by Riko and You. I was a bit nervous to speak but You was the first to break the silence.

“Hey, Chika, I’m sorry for getting mad at you yesterday. Riko talked to me and I still don’t trust Umi but I’ve decided that I’ll still trust you. I’ll trust you not to do anything that will get yourself killed okay? So please Chika, don’t break that trust.”

“I won’t You, don’t worry about me. But there is something I want to tell you.”   
“What is it? I’ll listen to you Chika, don’t feel the need to hold anything back.”   
“Well, I can’t tell you everything but Umi can’t be receiving orders from the mastermind. There’s no way that the mastermind and Umi are working together. The mastermind can’t make Umi do anything. You said you trust me, so if you’re going to trust me then that means you trust Umi now, right?”

“H-huh? Wait I don’t understand, how do you know that? Who told you that?”

“Like I said I can’t say that, but as long as you’re going to trust me, Umi can’t be ordered around, she’s not going to be ordered to kill any of us by the mastermind, alright?”

“Okay, I understand, I’ll put my trust in you and Umi then. Just know that if you get killed by Umi I’ll never forgive you, got it?”

“Of course! Umi won’t do anything to me! I guarantee!”

“Here you go! Here’s the ramen!”   
Rin suddenly came out of the Kitchen and slammed a massive pot of ramen on the table between the three of us.

“Well, since the two of you have made up why don’t we eat?”

“Of course Riko! Let’s enjoy ourselves for the rest of the night!”

With that, the three of us began to eat as Rin left the cafeteria. I’m not sure where she went but it didn’t matter. The three of us ate and talked and laughed all until we were interrupted by a familiar sound and voice.   
“This is an important Hotel bulletin. It is now Nighttime, the Cafeteria, Central hall, and Exercise rooms are now off limits.”

“Well, I guess we have to go now.”   
“You’re right You, let’s clean up and go back to Chika’s room.”

“That was a good meal! We’ll have to thank Rin tomorrow!”

“Yes, she’s a really good cook when it comes to ramen!”

The three of us cleaned up the table and went back to my room, but as I scanned my Monobook to unlock my door You tapped my shoulder to get my attention.

“Huh? What is it-”

“You, Riko, Chika, meet in the cafeteria tomorrow morning, there’s something I want to talk about.”

Maki gave us that foreboding command then moved on to knock on Umi’s door and told her the same thing. She continued down the hall as Riko and You walked into my room and I followed afterwards.

After eating as well as we did none of us had much trouble falling asleep, though I was curious about what Maki wanted from us all. There was no point thinking about it though since we would find out the next morning.

 

“This is an important Hotel bulletin. Nighttime is now over, I hope you all have a bea-utiful day!”

As You, Riko, and I woke up I remembered what we were asked to do, though You brought it up before I had the chance to.

“Alright! Let’s just head right to the cafeteria after we’re dressed, no point dilly dallying, right?”

“Yup! See you both then.”

With my dismissal the two of them left to their own rooms and I began to get dressed.

As I thought of it I realized Maki was becoming a leader again. She’s different though, before she was like a dictator, but now despite all the fronts she’s put up I can tell she’s grown, she cares about us. She’s smart and seems to have her own information that she’s piecing together. She’s trying to find the mastermind despite Umi’s inability to tell us who it is. She’s trying to find a way to get us all out of here. Maki’s doing her best to support us all despite her usually off-setting attitude. She’s grown a lot. In fact it seems like everyone has, Umi’s grown a lot since Honoka and Kotori died, Mari’s grown since Kanan, Maki’s grown since Nico, Ruby’s grown since the very start of this twisted game, they’re all becoming stronger, and here I am, still just me, still just Chika.

As I was lost in my train of thought I heard a knock on the door followed by You’s voice.

“Hey Chika! What’s taking so long? We’re all waiting for you!”   
“O-Oh! Right! Sorry I got lost in thought, I’ll be out there soon!”

I quickly finished getting dressed and ran to the Cafeteria. Maybe I was lucky that I hadn’t had a chance to grow yet.

All those who grew lost someone close to them.

 

“Alright, there are two things I want to talk about, but first is the thing that I’m sure at least one other person has noticed, Dia, you’re smart, what do you think it is.”

“The motive, it’s late.”

“Exactly, the trial was the day before yesterday. So far we’ve gotten the motives the day after the trial, so why is this one so late?”

“Well, that’s not always been true, Kotori didn’t have a motive to kill, right? So for the first trial we didn’t even have a motive, Maybe Monokuma expects that to happen again.”   
“No Mari, for one thing we’ve all grown so close that I’m sure we won’t have another situation like Kotori, the next motive is going to have to be a lot more intriguing than the ones we’ve had up until now.”   
“Besides, it’s not like Kotori had no reason to kill.”

“Huh? What do you mean Chika?”   
“You said it yourself, didn’t you Umi? Kotori always had schools begging for her to enroll, she had the most options of any of us outside of μ’s and Aqours, so she figured that if anyone should escape it should be her, that’s what you said, right?”

As I spoke I saw Umi’s face turn darker.

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

“Chika… How do you know I said that, that was a-”

“H-Hey, come on now, let’s not fight, it doesn’t matter how she found out right? Let’s focus on why we haven’t gotten our motive yet.”

That’s right, I only know about that because I was eavesdropping on Umi and You, I shouldn’t have said that, oh no, what if Umi thinks You told me, what if she thinks You betrayed her now. If Umi doesn’t trust You now then it’s my fault, it’s my fault that their distrust is worse now, it’s my fault, all my fault.

“Ok You, I guess that’s fine, you’re right, we don’t have to focus on this now, Maki, continue.”

Knowing Umi’s inability to lie I think she’s being honest with herself. I’m glad, I don’t want to pull them apart, You had enough trouble trusting Umi as it is.

“Well, I figured that the easiest way to figure out why it’s taking so long would be to ask the bear himself, wouldn’t it?”   
“You’re right, knowing the motive sooner would mean we could try to put a stop to it sooner, anyone think it’s a bad idea?”

Nobody spoke. It seemed stupid to ask what the next motive was at first, but Mari’s explanation made it seem like a good idea.

“Well then, let’s call him and-”

Suddenly Monokuma appeared in the Cafeteria with us all.

“No need! I’ve been listening this whole time! You wanna know the next motive right?”   
“Um, well yes but also why you didn’t tell us what it is for so long, is it a situation like the disease where you aren’t going to tell us about it until we notice?”

“H-Hey, now that I think about it, if only one person was infected each night while we were sleeping and Nozomi was infected before me, how did Nozomi get infected? She would have to have been infected the same day as the trial, right?”

“Oh, Nozomi naps a lot, he probably infected her while she was napping, Ruby!”   
“Oh, that makes sense, thanks Rin!”

“Ahem, back to me, the reason I didn’t tell you the motive until now was because I didn’t want to give the motive to you, I was planning on going motiveless to avoid needing to use this one…”

“Why didn’t you want to use a motive? That seems a bit out of character from you to avoid giving us a reason to kill each other.”

“Well, if you want it so badly I guess I’ll give you the motive, You can all feel free to blame Maki for the next killing now!”

“Wait! I didn’t mean I wanted you to give us the motive, I just wanted to know why you didn’t want to give it to us!”

“Too late! Next killing is at your hands Maki, totally 100% your fault! The motive is that the killer gets to make any one demand of me!”

“What?”

“You heard me Nishikino, Whoever kills someone gets to give me a demand that I must follow.”

“Hold on, does the motive still stand if the blackened is found?”

“Of course Ohara, all the motives have until now, though Yazawa’s said that if they escaped they could take one person with them, so by not escaping she was unable to take anyone with her. Ayase’s filthy rich now though! She’s just a corpse so she’s got nothing to spend it on.”

“What about if the command is given before they became the blackened?”   
“I think I see what’s happening here, so let’s say sure! If the last thing the blackened says before they die is a command then I’ll still count it as the motive’s use.”

“Well, if that’s the case-”

Mari was getting a dark look on her face, what was she getting at, why was she asking all these questions? But my thoughts we interrupted by a screech.

“-END THIS GAME AND LET ALL OF THE OTHER NINE LIVING GIRLS LEAVE THIS HELL ON EARTH.”

As she screamed her comand Mari pulled a knife out from under her skirt and began to thrust it towards her own neck. I was frozen in shock, I didn’t know what to do, was I witnessing a suicide?

“NOOOOO!”   
Suddenly another scream cut through the room and when I came back to my senses I saw something I couldn’t imagine.

Ruby was on top of Mari and the knife had slid halfway across the room. Ruby had stopped Mari’s suicide.

“Ruby! What are you doing! Do you want everyone to stay trapped here? Do you not want to be free? Do you want to wait for someone else to die? Let me end my own life to save all of yours!”

“No! I won’t let you die! I won’t let you kill yourself for the rest of us! You’re too important to us Mari! I can’t let you do something like this!”

“Please Ruby! Let me do this! I’m going to kill myself then you can go home with Dia! I don’t want any of the rest of you to die, that’s why I’m doing this!”

“Well if you’re willing to kill for everyone to escape then kill me!”

“What? Ruby no!”

“I-I could never kill you Ruby! What are you saying?”

“You have two choices Mari, if you’re going to kill someone it has to be me! If you aren’t willing to kill me then I won’t let you kill yourself!”

“I don’t have to listen to you Ruby! I could easily just go and kill myself some other time! I don’t care if you hate me for it, I’m going to free you all no matter what it takes!”

“Then I’ll follow you! No matter where you go I won’t let you out of my sight! I won’t give you the chance to do it! I won’t let you die for us Mari!”

“I could do it while you sleep! There are too many holes in your idea! I’ll find a way to lose you and kill myself to free you all! You won’t be able to stop me all the time Ruby!”

“I’ll help then, Ruby and I can sleep in shifts and we’ll both stay in your room with you, we won’t let you do it Mari, that’s final!”

“Ruby, Riko, why don’t you want this to end! Why won’t you let me free you all!”

“Because we care about you! We care about your life! We don’t want to see you sacrifice yourself for us!”

“...fine… you win Riko…”

“Alright, I guess we’re sleeping in your room tonight.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you stopped her.”   
“Of course you’d say that since your game would have ended if we didn’t!”   
“No, Sakurauchi, I’m saying that from your perspective, you didn’t let me finish explaining the motive before you started asking questions after all.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well before anyone else gets suicidal, you can’t give me commands that go against the rules of the hotel!”

“Wait, what rule would that have broken?”

“I can answer that one Hanayo, ‘Rule 6: The Killing Festival will continue until there are only three remaining residents,’ that’s the one, isn't it Monokuma?”

“Exactly right Kurosawa senior, if you were to demand I release any other residents you would have to choose three! All the others will have to face punishment!”

“W-What? So you’re saying-”

“Yup! If Kurosawa junior didn’t stop ya then you’d be unable to revise your demand and the game would continue as if you were never here!”

Mari turned a ghostly shade of white at what Monokuma said and who could blame her, she almost died for nothing when she thought she would die for everything. It was a terrifying thing to imagine.

“So, any more questions? If not then I’m outta here.”

Before anyone had a chance to respond or even process what happened in front of us, Monokuma left the Cafeteria, and Mari began to cry.

“I-I just… I just want this to end… why is there no way to stop this killing, this death, why why why…”

“It’s ok Mari, let it out, Riko and I will be with you tonight, you don’t have anything to worry about, alright?”

“Um, hey, Maki, you said you had something else you wanted to talk about but… is it okay if Ruby, Mari and I leave? You can fill us in later.”

“Yes that’s probably for the best, Mari looks like she needs the rest.”

Ruby and Riko helped Mari up off the floor and the three of them left the room.

“Well, not really the audience I was hoping for, but either way, may as well tell you anyways.”

“Yeah, what’s the other thing you wanted to tell us?”

“Jeez Chika, have a bit more patience. I already told a few people, and even said not to mention it since I didn’t want to have the risk of being attacked be raised but after considering it last night I’ve decided to tell you all what I know. There’s a traitor in the hotel, someone working for Monokuma. Those of you I already told shouldn’t out yourself, it’s too risky, but I can say this, there are only a handful of candidates.”

“Huh? Who are candidates?”

“And what do you mean working for Monokuma?”

“Rin, Dia, I was getting to that. To answer Rin’s question first, the candidates are You, Riko, Dia, Mari, Ruby,” and then she said something I hadn’t expected. “Hanamaru, Yoshiko, and Kanan.”

“W-Wait, how can those last three possibly be the traitor? They’re all…”

“Yes, they’re dead, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be the traitor. They were all victims after all, if they were killers then sure, they would be less likely to be working for Monokuma. But if the traitor were attacked then there’s nothing Monokuma could do, isn’t that right?”

“Hold on, that list, there’s something off about it.”

“What is it You?”

“Why is it only members of Aqours? And why is Chika left off?”

“Because the candidates are the members of Aqours minus Chika, figured that was self explanatory.”

“Maki, how do you know this?”

“That’s for me to know, Dia, you’re one of the candidates so I’m not entirely trusting of you.”

“Weren’t you just complimenting her a few days ago though?”

“Yes, and I meant what I said, You, she has a natural charm to her that would make her hard to kill, but wouldn’t that natural charm also make her a good choice for Monokuma’s puppet? Riko’s potential lies in the same place, as well as Kanan’s. You, You, could be the traitor since you’re clearly not trusting of me, you’ve made that evident enough to me, and of course the traitor likely knows that I know what I do, so it would make sense for the traitor not to like me, the same can be said for Mari. Ruby and Hanamaru would both be the least suspicious, which is what would make them the best candidates, and Ruby would certainly be easy enough to manipulate or force into listening. That leaves Yoshiko, if she let something slip it would be easy to mask thanks to her confusing language. In the end anyone of the eight could be the traitor. Though I’m about to contradict myself.”

“What do you mean that you’re going to contradict yourself?”

“I mean that four of the eight can be ruled out, luckily for me deductions the one who would be the most suspicious to me otherwise is included in that list.”

“Well who are they?”

“By nature of how I found the truth I can say that those who are dead, Kanan, Hanamaru, and Yoshiko, are unable to be the traitor.”

“And who’s the fourth?”

“The fourth that can be ruled out is Ruby. I won’t say why for the sake of privacy in my thoughts but it is safe to say there are only four potential traitors. You, Riko, Mari, and Dia.”

“You’re absolutely certain one of them is working for Monokuma?”

“Yes Hanayo, one of them is working for Monokuma, it can’t be none of them, it has to be one of those four.”

“And how do we know you’re not the traitor feeding us false information?”

“Feel free to believe that You, the more suspicious I am to you, the more suspicious you are to me. Though truth be told, you’re not my prime suspect.”

“Who is?”

“That’s for me to know Umi. Anyways, let’s move on to Dia’s question.”

“Yes, how exactly would someone work for Monokuma?”

“It’s simple. They must follow the mastermind’s every command, though I’m sure those are few and far between. It’s likely they operate on their own with the occasional ‘Hey do this.’”

“But why would someone listen to the mastermind? Does that mean we have two masterminds? And wouldn’t the mastermind be able to do it themselves rather than needing to tell someone else to do stuff for them?”

“No, I’m sure the mastermind and traitor are not working together, Chika. There’s certainly a few reasons someone would listen but the best I can think of are blackmail or ransom. Anyone could have something like that so the reason doesn’t help in narrowing down the traitor.”

“I don’t think we’ll get anywhere with this, we should all go do our own thing with the rest of the day.”

“I agree Hanayo, we have our motive now thanks to my own mistakes and I’ve told you about the traitor. There’s nothing more to discuss. Feel free to tell Mari, Riko, and Ruby whenever you feel like it. I’m going back to my room to think if anyone wants to find me.”

With that Maki left. I wasn’t really sure what to say. This motive was seemingly infinite, but more importantly…

“So… we were almost all witnesses to suicide.”

“You don’t have to say it like that Umi… I’m glad Ruby was able to stop her… I don’t know how she would take it if she had to witness something like that.”

“Yeah… You should be proud of her Dia! She’s your sister and she just stopped one of your best friends from killing herself!”

“Yeah… it’s just… I feel horrible… I couldn’t do anything to stop her… I was frozen… I’m glad Ruby and Riko were able to stop her, it’s just… I don’t know how to feel right now Rin...”

“Don’t feel bad Dia. Just because you weren’t able to help her then doesn’t mean you can’t help her now.”

“You’re right Hanayo, but I don’t want to crowd her. She has Ruby and Riko helping her, so for now I think I’ll leave them to it…”

Dia left the Cafeteria and went right. She probably went to either the Library or Courtyard.

“So Chika… I guess it’ll be just you and me tonight, isn’t that right?”

“Yeah, Riko’s going to be with Mari and Ruby tonight. I hope Riko and Ruby get enough sleep even with sleeping in shifts.”

“I’m sure they’ll be fine. Riko won’t let anything happen to either of them!”

“You’re right, sorry I guess the mood’s just gotten me down, come on, let’s go do something!”

Without even responding to me, You grabbed my wrist and took off sprinting down the hall, dragging me behind her. I could hardly hold myself up and when I finally felt myself get stable footing I found that I wasn’t standing on anything at all. I was falling. I looked down and realized You had pulled me into the pool just before hitting the surface.

“H-Hey! I wasn’t ready for that You!”

“Ehehe, that’s the point! Now come on, let’s get out and go change into dry clothes.”

“We wouldn’t have to change if you didn’t drag me into the pool!”

“But hey, you’re not as sad now, right?”

She was right, but I didn’t want to admit it, even if the wide smile on my face betrayed me.

“C-come on You, let’s just get out of the pool!”

“Hehe, alright, alright.”

You climbed out in front of me and then gave me her hand to help me get out. I took it and we walked back to our rooms together.

After changing into dry clothes I left my room. When I looked to my right I saw You going into Mari’s room, probably to tell Riko, Mari, and Ruby about the fact that there’s a traitor among us. I wanted to give them space so I decided to leave them to talk about it amongst the four of them.

When You dragged me to the Pool I hadn’t seen Dia in the Courtyard, so I guess if I wanted to check on her the Library is where I should look. When I arrived I didn’t find Dia, rather I found Hanayo.

“Huh? Hi Chika, what are you doing here? I didn’t think you were one to read much.”

“N-no, I didn’t come for a book, I was looking for Dia, I wanted to make sure she was okay, do you know where she is?”

“Dia was here just a little while ago, we were talking about different novels we could read. She was close to Hanamaru so I figured she would be the best one to ask. But anyways, she left not too long ago, she said she wanted to talk to Mari and the others and tell them about the possible traitor.”

“It’s not a possible traitor, there definitely is one.”

I turned and saw that Maki had come into the Library and was leaning against the door frame.

“I-I know, I just don’t want to accept that someone could be working for Monokuma, all the girls in Aqours seem so nice!”

“Well, the way I’ve decided to look at it is that if a member of Aqours is the victim then there’s a chance they’ll be the traitor, right?”

“So you’re saying you hope the Aqours members die off? You want all my friends to die?”

“No, because we’d have no way to know if they were the traitor if they died, what I’m saying is it’s better if the candidates weren’t the ones who died.”

“What? That doesn’t make any sense! You’re contradicting yourself Maki!”

Maki let out a long sigh before turning to walk off into another part of the Library.

“You two won’t understand any time soon. Whatever, Chika, let me know when you understand what I’ve been trying to tell you since after the very first trial. Then I’ll be able to share everything I know.”

With that cryptic message Maki left our sight, though she could definitely still hear anything Hanayo and I say.

“Since the first trial? She hasn’t been repeating any specific phrase to you since then, right Chika?”

“No, I think it would have to be something she could say a bunch of different ways without it being suspicious…”

“Do you have any ideas Chika?”

“Not at all, but since she said it after this conversation I’m sure she tried to communicate it just now too.”

“Well, I’ve had enough of this stuffy Library, I’ll see you around Chika.”

With that Hanayo picked up her books and left. I guess if You and Dia both went to Mari’s room it must be pretty crowded. I’ll go talk to Umi first then.

I knocked on Umi’s door and she opened it pretty quickly, I guess she wasn’t doing anything.

“Oh, hi Chika, what’s up?”

“Well, I was just with Hanayo and Maki, and all of the other five are in Mari’s room right now, so I decided to come talk to you! I don’t want anyone to feel lonely after all.”

“That’s sweet of you Chika, I’m glad you’re here, I don’t know what any of us would do without your bubbly personality.”

“Ehehe, I wouldn’t really describe myself that way but hey, if I’m helping you feel better then I’m succeeding! So I’ll take it!”

“Hehe. Hey Chika, I’ve been wondering something.”

“Yeah? What is it Umi?”

“About what You said earlier, she said what if Maki were the traitor, what if Maki were lying and feeding us false information so that we suspect each other?”

“I don’t think You is right about that, You can be naturally suspicious of others sometimes, so I think she’s just trying to tell us to consider every possibility, even if it’s unreasonable.”

“Okay, if you say so Chika. I just want to keep everyone’s ideas in mind.”

“Yeah, that’s good of you, it really is hard though, I don’t want to suspect anyone but I also don’t want to ignore anyone’s ideas. It’s especially hard to believe that one of us is masterminding the whole thing…”

“Er, Chika, could we not talk about the mastermind, I don’t want to slip up at all and die for it.”

“O-Oh, right, sorry Umi, I wasn’t thinking.”

“No, it’s alright Chika, don’t worry about it. Lets just talk about something else.”

“Like what?”

“Well, you write the lyrics for Aqours right?”

“Yeah, I write them for most of the songs, why?”

“Well I was wondering how you did it, do you have anything you do that helps you come up with good lyrics?”

“Er, well, not really, I just stare at the paper and write what I think and then eventually lyrics happen, what do you do for lyrics Umi?”

“Er, well, I…”

“What? I didn’t hear you.”

“I do the same! Arg, I wish writing songs wasn’t so hard…”

“I know what you mean Umi, and when you’re on a time crunch but you’re just totally blanking because you keep thinking about how little time you have! I hate writing them but I love to perform and sing them! It’s really fun!”

“Well if that’s the case why didn’t you make Aqours into a cover group? That would make a lot more sense in that situation, right? So what made you want to write your own songs anyways?”

“Because I wanted Aqours to be something I could be proud of, I wanted it to be Aqours! I didn’t want it to be some knock-off of another group, I wanted us to be our own group, our own selves, I wanted it to be so that Aqours is Aqours!”

“Hehe, hearing you talk about Aqours is nice, you really love them, don’t you.”

“Yeah, I really care about everyone! Riko, and You, and Mari, and Dia, and Ruby, and even if they’re gone now I’ll never stop loving Maru, or Kanan, or Yoshiko, I love them all and nothing can ever make me stop loving them all!”

“Even if one of them is almost certainly the traitor?”

“Even if one of them is a traitor I’ll still keep loving them! I won’t stop loving them! I’ll love them so much they pass out and then keep loving them some more!”

“You’re really full of energy, aren’t you Chika.”

“Yup! Because if I don’t spread love to everyone then who will? I want to make sure everyone is happy and that no one feels left out!”

“But Chika, what about yourself, what makes you happy? How do you cheer yourself up when you’re down? I know you’ve had some times that you’ve been overwhelmed by everything here, I’ve even been the cause of at least one of those times, so I’m curious what you did to pick yourself back up and keep going.”

“Oh, well, myself is probably the one person I can’t really seem to bring up, but that’s what I have friends for! As long as I have friends like you, You, Riko, Dia, Mari, Ruby, all of you, as long as I have you then I know that even when I’m down I’ll have someone to lift me up, someone to care for me. That’s what keeps me going, the knowledge that even if I fail, even if I lose everything, I’ll have friends that will never leave me, friends that care about me and love me just as much as I love them. Those friendships are the single most important thing to me, and there’s no way I could function as a human being without them.”

“Wow Chika, I didn’t expect you to be so philosophical. I’m starting to see you in a whole new light. I know I said this exact thing negatively not too long ago, but you really are a lot like Honoka.”

“Hm? What to you mean?”

“You both care deeply about your friends and bonds. You both would do anything for those you care about. Both of you want nothing but the best for those close to you, and would be willing to do anything for them to get what you think they deserve. You both think that friendship is the most important thing in life and both put your friends above yourself, putting your faith in your friends to do the same for you. You’re both very selfless when it comes to your friendships, and I think that that attitude is something to admire.”

Hearing Umi’s words I didn’t know what to say, that's what she truthfully though of me at that moment, that was what she believed was the best way to describe me at that moment. In that moment of the two of us sitting alone in her room on her bed that was the type of person Umi believed I was. And I started to cry. I started to cry, and hug her and say thank you over and over again. I wasn’t sure why I was thanking her, and she wasn’t either. But she accepted my hugs and gave me a shoulder to cry on. I’m not sure why I cried, I just did. All the tears inside me came up and poured out. I cried on her until I couldn’t cry anymore and then I just held onto her. I didn’t want to let go of her. But eventually I backed off. I saw that I left a big wet stain on her shirt but she didn’t seem to mind. Umi stood up and gave me one more hug before I left. I wasn’t sure where I was going, I just went forward. I didn’t stop until I heard a shout behind me, as I turned I saw I was in the Courtyard in the same place You had found me after the last trial.

“Hey, Chika, where are you going?”

“Oh, h-hi Dia, what’s up?”

“Whoa, Chika, are you okay? Your eyes are red and your face looks like it was being shoved into a rock, where you crying?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it though, it was a happy cry.”

“Okay, if you say so, Hanayo said you were looking for me earlier.”

“Yeah, I was, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You were really down on yourself after the incident with Mari.”

“Yeah, I’m better now, Mari seems to be too, but Ruby and Riko still want to stay with her tonight.”

“I assumed they would, even if she knows that she can’t sacrifice herself to free us all I think she could use the support.

“Exactly, so, do you want to come eat with everyone? We decided to eat together tonight, we were almost done making everything when I saw you walk by so I chased after you.”

“Oh, that sounds fun! What about Maki? Where is she?”

“She’s the last one we haven’t found, I told everyone I’d check the Central Hall after I got you, so come on, let’s go find her.”

The two of us went to find Maki and she wound up being in the Library in the same place she was when I left earlier.

“Hey Maki! Come on! We’re all going to eat together!”

“Alright, alright, no need to shout Chika, I’m coming.”

Maki closed her book and placed it back on the shelf.

“I’ve read just about all I need anyways, let’s go.”

Dia led the two of us back to the Cafeteria and as we got closer the smells hit me like a wall, I couldn’t tell what it was but it smelled absolutely amazing. We turned to enter the room and what I saw wasn’t much but it was nice. It was just one table set with food but it looked so beautiful in a place like this.

“Wh-What, how did you make it so fast?”

“Mari, Riko, Ruby, and I were talking about doing this when You came in and not long after that we came here and started cooking. The five of us worked all day to make it so I hope you enjoy it Chika.”

“It looks so good… Mari and You are amazing cooks and I’m sure you’ve cooked a lot for Ruby, but what did Ruby and Riko make?”

“Ruby made the sweet potatoes and french fries, and Riko decided on what food we should make. Mari made all the meat and You did most of the side dishes. I really only made a few of the left over things that Riko had wanted.”

“There’s so much here… I don’t even know where to start…”

Eventually I managed to fill a plate up with food and sat with everyone to eat. We talked, we laughed, we all did our best to enjoy ourselves. This hotel was full of pain, full of loss and full of sadness. But the moments like this where we could enjoy each other’s company before another two people were gone, these moments were what helped us push on, they were what kept us from taking Monokuma’s bait and becoming blackened.

After a while and after Rin had 7 plates stacked in front of her we heard a sound that signaled the end of our meal and the beginning of another night where we didn’t know what would happen, another night of fear.

“This is an important Hotel bulletin. It is now Nighttime, the Cafeteria, Central hall, and Exercise rooms are now off limits.”

“Alright, well, let’s all go to sleep, we can worry about cleaning in the morning, let’s go You, Chika.”

“W-Wait, Riko, I thought you were staying with me and Mari tonight.”

“Oh, right, sorry, force of habit at this point, let’s go.”

Mari, Ruby, and Riko were the first to leave and everyone else followed soon after, the metal grate coming down and sealing the Cafeteria behind us. I opened my door and You followed me in. It was strange not having Riko with us but we could manage a few nights without her, I’m sure.

We both went to sleep pretty quickly.

 

I ended up waking up without Monokuma’s announcement. I opened my eyes and saw the wall. A moment of panic set in before I remembered that Riko was with Mari. I saw the digital clock that she would have blocked if she were here. It read 3:57.

“Maybe I should get a glass of water and just go back to sleep.”

As I sat up and stretched the bed felt empty thanks to Riko not being here, but, no, this was different. I opened my eyes and looked down and saw, nothing. Just a bed, there was nothing but a bed there. You wasn’t here.

“Wh-What… No, no no no no nonononono-”

I got out of bed and flung my door open, I didn’t even take the time to but on my slippers, I just ran, I ran forward, I had to find You, I had to find that she was alive, and well, and just taking a nighttime walk through the hotel, that’s all it was, I eventually wound up finding her, but not in the way I had hoped.

In the pool, You was face down with a knife in her back, Umi was on the ground nearby and Maki was leaned over her, before I could process anything I heard Maki bark at me.

“CHIKA! IF YOU’RE HERE MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL AND FIND SOMEONE ELSE SO THE BODY DISCOVERY PLAYS, UMI ISN’T DEAD YET!”

But I couldn’t move, Maki’s words confirmed my fear. If Umi wasn’t dead and finding someone would play the body discovery, that means You was dead. There in the water of the pool, was You’s corpse.

“DAMN IT CHIKA, IT DOESN’T MATTER WHO JUST FIND SOMEONE SO THAT EVERYONE ELSE GETS WOKEN UP BY THE ANNOUNCEMENT.”

But again, I couldn’t move, I was frozen. This couldn’t be happening, it couldn’t be real, it was a nightmare, right?

Then I heard movement and talking behind me, from in the Courtyard, and Maki yelled something else.

“WHOEVER’S OUT THERE COME INTO THE POOL, DON’T THINK ABOUT IT JUST COME LOOK IN HERE.”

And then I heard Mari’s voice behind me.

“Wh-What’s wrong Maki? Did something hap-”

Then silence. Silence as Mari saw what I had seen. And that silence was broken by a sound that I despised with every fiber of my being.

“Ding. Ding. Ding. Dong.”

And I collapsed. I fell to the ground as Monokuma's voice played and tears started to fall from my eyes.

“A body has been discovered. After a period of time a trial will be held.”

It was true... In the pool… It was You’s dead body, she had died. No, she had been killed, killed by one of the other girls in the hotel.

As I cried I heard two more sets of footsteps come running into the Pool, and I heard a scream accompanied by someone else’s tears. Ruby and Riko were with Mari.

And then were the last three sets of footsteps, Rin, Hanayo, and Dia came running into the Courtyard.

“UMI’S STILL ALIVE, I’M TRYING TO STABILIZE HER, DIA, RIN, YOU TWO COME HERE.”

I was barely able to follow what was happening as Maki barked orders to everyone. She told Dia and Rin something and they took her place by Umi. Then Maki ran past the five of us in the doorway and I heard a series of beeps from everyone’s Monobooks except mine, I had left mine in my room as I ran out the door. I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up to see Riko behind me.

“Ch-Chika, I know it’ll be hard, but come on we need to investigate. We need to find out who did this to You. Think about it, how mad do you think You would be to see us die because we couldn’t find who killed her.”

Riko was right, we need to find who did this, we can’t let the blackened get away with this, especially not after killing You.

“Come on Chika, you don’t have your Monobook so feel free to read off mine.”

Riko held her Monobook in front of me and the Monokuma File appeared.

 

**Monokuma Special Bulletin**

Monokuma File #5

The victim was You Watanabe

The body was found face down in the water of the Pool

The cause of death is a slit throat

The only other damage to the body is a knife wound in the back

Time of death: approximately 2 A.M.

 

You really was gone, there was no way for her to come back. As I finished reading, Maki burst back into the Pool with a crate of what I could only assume were medical supplies.

“Alright, let’s try to save her.”

Maki took back over on top of Umi and began to wrap bandages around her. She spoke again after a while.

“Alright, she shouldn’t die, the Central Hall was opened up after the Monokuma File was given to everyone so I went to get medical supplies from there. I’m probably everyone’s first guess for the killer considering I was found leaning over Umi’s dying body so I’ll give my story before we split off for the investigation.”

Maki wasn’t wrong about her being suspicious, but considering the time of death it would be strange for her to be sitting there for about 2 hours if she were the killer.

“After Honoka and Yoshiko died at pretty early times I’ve had my alarm set for 3:30 in hopes that if someone was killed around that time I could stop them. Every night since the third trial I’ve checked over the entire hotel, at least the rooms that I could check during nighttime. When I came to the pool I saw Umi barely alive and came to stop the bleeding to the best of my ability until either someone else came and the body discovery could be set off or until nighttime ended. Then about half an hour later at my best guess, Chika came. I yelled at her to go get someone but she was frozen, it’s probably not hard to imagine why, considering…” Maki gestured towards the pool and I didn’t need to look again. “But a few minutes later,” Had it really been that long that I was frozen? “I heard Mari, Riko, and Ruby in the Courtyard and yelled for one of them to come over. Then the body discovery happened, Dia, Rin, and Hanayo showed up, and I told Dia and Rin to hold the wounds to slow bleeding. I ran to get bandages to stop her and here we are now. Umi should live, I’m almost certain of that, her blood looks and smells fine so I don’t think anything is wrong there. There’s one major issue with her though that’s going to make this trial way more complicated than it has to be.”

“What is it Maki?”

“I was getting to that Hanayo, you see how she is now? On the ground and on her back?”

“Yes, that’s pretty normal for someone who was being cared for.”

“Exactly Mari, it would make sense for me to position her like that. But the thing is, I didn’t.”

“What? What do you mean you didn’t?”

“What I mean, Chika, is that she was like that when I found her, anyone care to wager a guess to what that means?”

“Well, if she’s on her back on the ground and not crumpled, that would mean she fell.”

“Exactly Dia, I’m glad we still have one of the smartest people left. Umi fell, and in falling she hit her head, and in hitting her head on solid concrete it’s very likely she has a concussion, best case she doesn’t remember the events of last night here in the Pool, worst case she doesn’t even know who any of us are.”

Umi wouldn’t remember yesterday? If she didn’t remember yesterday then she wouldn’t remember my conversation with her… She wouldn’t remember the conversation that had me cry so hard I couldn’t cry anymore. And if she didn’t remember that conversation, then it’d be like it never happened at all...

“And so you’re saying if she doesn’t remember last night-”

“Then she won’t remember who killed You, exactly Riko. Well, that’s all I have to share. Umi should be awake by the trial so we should be able to question her then.”

Maki stood up from Umi and walked out of the Pool.

“I’m going to check out the rest of the hotel, you can look at what’s here for now, suspect me if you want, I don’t mind, that’s the point of these trials after all.”

“Well, I guess I’ll get us started.”

Dia sad that and then proceeded to take off her shirt.

“Um, Dia, I’m not complaining but what help is this for the investigation? Motivation?”

I looked over and saw Mari covering Ruby’s eyes.

“No you idiot! I’m getting You’s body out of the pool, I didn’t what my clothes to get wet. I’ve taken one from You’s book and started wearing a swimsuit under my clothes in case she became a victim and we had to get something from the pool.”

“Alright, still fanservice though.”

“Shut up Mari.”

Before Mari could say anything else, Dia dove into the pool and was able to push You’s body to the edge where Rin and Hanayo pulled it out. The way it lifelessly rolled across the water was painful to look at.

Once the body was out of the water, Rin took the knife out of her and placed her on her back. The Monokuma file was right that she had a slit throat and I had to grab a towel to cover her neck because it was just too hard to look at. As Dia was drying off I saw something glisten out of the corner of my eye and turned towards it. But when I looked into the water I couldn’t see anything. Without really thinking about it I dove into the pool and heard Riko call in confusion behind me. I went deeper and saw what I had seen a second earlier. I couldn’t make it out in the water but one side was black and the other was a silver colour. Guessing what it was I grabbed the black side and swam back up to the surface.

Riko was at the edge of the water to help pull me up and I took her hand with the one that was not holding what I could now clearly identify as a knife.

“Geez Chika, give a little bit of warning next time.”

“Sorry, I saw this in the water and thought it would be important, it was pretty much right under where You was.”

“Hey, Chika, can I see that for a second.”

“Yeah, here Dia.”

Dia took the knife from my hand and got the other knife off of the ground next to You. She held the two right in front of her and looked at them carefully.

“Ruby, go get Maki, it looks like she’ll be needed here after all.”

“Huh? Why’s that sis?”

“These knives are definitely different widths, I feel like knowing which one Umi was attacked with will be important, Maki’s done this kind of thing before with Kanan so she should be able to do it again.”

“Alright, I’ll go find her!”

Ruby ran off to search for Maki and I can tell she was glad to be out of the Pool and away from You and Umi. In the meantime I decided to ask Riko something.

“Hey Riko, why did you, Ruby, and Mari come down here anyways? You’re all in workout clothes so does that mean-”

Mari cut into our conversation.

“Yes, we were going to run laps around the Courtyard, I’ve been doing it every morning at 4 since Kanan died and they ended up coming with me.”

“Alright, it was 3:57 when I left my room so if you had an alarm set for 4 then that makes sense.”

“Oh, also I feel like this is important to throw out there, Mari and Ruby have airtight alibis since I was awake at 2, so even if neither of them can confirm I was there, I can confirm that neither of them could have done it.”

“Alright, that’s good to know, thank you Riko.”

“Hey sis! I found Maki!”

Ruby came back into the Pool leading Maki by the hand.

“Hey, Maki, I need you to look at this.”

“What is it Dia?”

“There are two knives here, the bloody one was the one in You’s back, the wet one was at the bottom of the pool, I want to know which one Umi was attacked with.”

“Alright, give me a while and I’ll get back to you on that. Chika come here.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“I want you to go to my room, on the desk there should be about five or six notebooks, I want you to bring me the black one. And just so you know, if you look inside,” Maki held up the knife that had been inside You. “You’ll be the next one this blade meets.”

I gulped before responding to her threat.

“A-Alright, got it! I’ll be back soon then.”

I took off and as I got to the West Hall I saw something a bit strange, even though my door should have come closed behind me it was opened. I looked down and saw a book wedged between the door and its frame. Was this here before? I tried to remember when I ran out of my room, I don’t think I twisted the handle at all so I guess it must have been open. You must have left this here so that she could get back into my room without me knowing she ever left. But she was never able to come back, she couldn’t make the fact that she went to the Pool a secret.

I placed the book in my room and put on my slippers before shutting the door. Since Umi had her Monobook she probably didn’t need to hold her door open like that. When I came to Maki’s door I went inside. I didn’t plan to snoop around, I just planned to be in and out, but Maki had so much stuff in her room. Around the desk there were enough books to rival Maru’s tendencies. They were all about medicines, the human body, physiology, nothing weird for Maki to have. Before letting myself get too distracted I looked to the top of her desk and saw the notebooks Maki had mentioned stacked on top of each other.

“Let’s see, blue, red, purple, here we go! The black one.”

I took the notebook and placed the others all back in place on top of each other before turning to run back to the Pool, but something caught my eye as I opened the door which I hadn’t noticed from the other side. There was tape on the side of the door, covering the part that held the door closed.

“Huh? I wonder what this is for?”

I closed the door again to see what happened and it closed just as a door should, even if it didn’t go in all the way the door was still held shut and even made the same clicking sound.

“I guess it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t seem to do anything.”

I opened the door again and ran, notebook in hand, back to the Pool.

“Hey Maki! I got it for you!”

“Alright, just place it under my foot, then I want you to look at the bloodstain patterns and tell me if there’s anything strange with them, anything that looks like a body was dragged or carried, you know?”

“Alright, got it!” Maki lifted her leg and I placed the notebook under it. Then I started to look at the bloodstains. First of all was the obvious. There was a cloud of blood in the pool where You was. Though there was something else worth noting, which was that at the edge of the pool there was a large puddle of blood. I could only assume it was You’s. If that were where the blood was, then she can’t have had her throat slit somewhere else and been dragged to the pool, she was killed at the edge, it was probably almost instant.

Looking at everything else though, there was a lot. Spanning all around the side of the Pool the entrance was on were drops of blood that must have come from Umi. A towel rack was knocked over and the trail went back from the rack towards the door and to where Umi is now.

“So Chika, based on the blood trails what do you think happened?”

“Well, it looks like You was killed right next to the pool, as for Umi I think she struggled. There’s a trail of blood leading to a knocked over towel rack and then to her body. She probably got cut then ran to the towels, leaving a trail, and knocked them over to mess up her attacker. Then she probably ran for the door to escape and was knocked over somehow.”

“Yes, that’s what it seems like, neither body was moved, aside from pushing You’s body into the pool.”

“Maki, pay attention to what you’re doing, she’s still alive, isn’t she?”

“I know Dia, I’ve got the answer, I’ve just been thinking of different possibilities as to what happened.”

“Well if you have the answer let’s rebandage her! Which knife was she attacked with?”

“Umi was attacked with the same one that was in You’s back.”

“Alright, now put a new bandage on her, it’s getting tiring holding down her arm like this.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m getting to that.”

Maki put a new bandage around Umi and then stepped away.

“By the way, just to clarify this fact, Umi’s injuries are all cuts up and down her arms as well as the place on her head where she impacted the ground. Her legs and torso are undamaged, so once she wakes up she should be fine to participate in the trial, though with her almost definite memory loss I’m not sure she’s going to be much help, the discussion will certainly revolve around her. Also her blood loss wasn’t significant enough for her to become anemic, so that won’t be an issue.”

As Maki spoke about Umi’s damages we heard a cough. I looked down and saw that, as Maki had predicted, Umi was waking up in time for us to question her.

 

Umi slowly sat up and began to speak in a weak voice.

“H-Huh? Where am I? What are you all doing around me? Chika, what’s wrong? You look like you’ve been crying a lot lately.”

Thank goodness, she at least remembered who we were.

“Did something happen? D-Did I almost die?”

“Well, you didn’t, but look to your right.”

“I don’t think I have to Maki, I see you, Dia, Chika, Rin, Hanayo, Ruby, Riko, and Mari. So that means You’s body is probably next to me, isn’t it?”

“Y-Yes, it is.”

“Ugh, why did something like this have to happen.”

“H-Hey, Umi, I have a question.”

“What is it Chika?”

“What happened last night.”

“Well, what I can remember from last night is Maki coming to everyone’s door and telling us to meet in the Cafeteria tomorrow, or, I guess today.”

“See? I told you she would lose at least some portion of memory.”

“Huh? What do you mean I’d lose-”

“You’ve forgotten a whole day Umi. The meeting in the Cafeteria was yesterday.”

“Wh-What? How did that- ow!”

“Don’t strain yourself, you’ve got a concussion and your arms are covered in cuts. Anyways, you should be stable so I’m getting back to my own investigation if nobody else needs me.”

Maki got up and left as Umi lay on the ground next to You’s body. Rin came over and helped her up, acting as Umi’s crutch.

“H-Hey, there’s something that’s been bothering me.”

“What is it Kayo-chin?”

“Um, well, whose glasses are these?”

Hanayo had picked You’s glasses up off the ground and was holding them up for us all to see. Riko, Dia, Mari, Ruby, and myself all responded simultaneously.

“They’re You’s.”

“O-Oh, I didn’t realize she wore glasses, I just didn’t want anyone to suspect me since there were glasses here and I thought I was the only one who wore glasses here…”

“No, Maru and You both have glasses, they both just usually wear contacts.”

“O-Ok Riko, thank you.”

Hanayo carefully put You’s glasses back on the ground and stepped away from them.

As the others continued to look around the Pool I slipped away to find Maki. What could she be investigating elsewhere? That was the question I had.

My search eventually led me to the Baths, Maki was facing away from the door and hadn’t seen me come in. I was about to say something but stopped myself. After a second Maki shouted fairly loudly, but not too loud.

“Monokuma, come here!”

“What is it Nishikino? Why are you calling me here?”   
“As I thought, even if there are no cameras here you’ve got the room bugged, so even if Umi spilt the info in here you would know and kill her.”

“Of course! After one time I learned not to ever leave any blind spots! And even if it were written down I would still see writing utensils be brought in and automatically assume it were the case that she had told you in writing, I told her as such when she found out who I am.”

“Hm, what do you mean after one time?”

“Oops, may have let a little info spill, don’t mind me!”

Maki sighed but I could see her starting to run through hundreds of possibilities in her mind.

“Well, anyways, Chika, come out here, it’s good you followed me, I want someone else here for this part.”

“Oh, so you did see me, ehe.”

“Alright Monokuma, I get a feeling this may be important, has the blackened used the motive yet?”

“What do you mean?”

“Has the blackened used the motive and given you a command yet?”

“I’m not sure if that’s something I can tell you.”

“And I’m not sure if a fair trial is possible if you don’t tell me.”

“Alright then, I’ll tell you, the motive has already been used, I have already done the thing the blackened has ordered me to do as well, so the motive is now finished.”

“Alright, thank you Monokuma, I’m done here.”

Maki turned and walked past me. And as she did she whispered something to me, something that made no sense at the time.

“You’ve cheated death, you have power here, that’s why I chose you Chika, don’t let me down.”

With those ominous words Maki left the room.

“If you’ll excuse me, I have something to do.”

Monokuma left but not long after I heard a sound from outside. 

“The investigation is now over! Please report to the Commons Area for the fifth Hotel Trial!”

I soon heard seven sets of footsteps outside and joined everyone else walking to the Commons Area, though I quickly went into my room and changed into dry clothes before the trial.

“Geez, took you long enough Takami! What part of report to the Commons Area didn’t you understand! Whatever, you’re here now, let’s get moving!”

The grate came down, sealing the rest of the hotel off as the Commons Area began to shake and move in that same confusing way where I didn’t know if we were going up or down. It was time for another hotel trial, another trial to discover who a killer was, but this time was worse than the rest, this time it was a trial to find the killer of someone I cared for so deeply, it was the trial to find the blackened who killed You Watanabe. Who killed someone I loved so much.

As the room stopped shaking the 9 of us who were left took position in the trial grounds. Only 9 of us remained, and the stand to my left, the one that You had stood in before, was replaced with a wooden rod and a picture. Both of the girls that had stood by my side in the first trial were gone. Eli as a killer and now You, as a victim.

Someone here had killed You. Only 9 were left and after this trial ended there would be 8. One of us was a killer who had taken the life of the girl that was my best friend for my whole life, and who I’ll love forever, even after I die and go back to meet her in the afterlife.

It was time for the trial to start, a trial of doubt, a trial of trust, and of distrust, a trial where the truth would be revealed, and I would get revenge for You’s death.

 

**_TRIAL START_ **

 

Maki: So, I’ll start us off by sharing what info I was able to get right at the end.

Riko: And what info is that?

Maki: I asked Monokuma a few questions, and the only important info I got from him was that the motive has already been used.

Umi: Wait what motive? I don’t remember any motive being given for this case. Though I guess that means the motive was given yesterday, right?

Rin: Yeah, when Maki called us all together she pointed out that we hadn’t gotten a motive yet so Monokuma gave one to us. He said that the blackened could give him a single command that he would follow.

Monokuma: I didn’t want to give you that motive but Nishikino wanted it so badly that I just had to oblige!

Maki: Can it Monokuma, anyways, since the motive has been used already it has to be something that we won’t be able to see. We probably shouldn’t involve the motive as a primary piece of our discussion as a result of that.

Riko: Okay, so where should we start Maki?

Maki: Well, I’ll start by explaining the possible ways this killing occurred. There are three scenarios that I can think of, two of which peg Umi as the killer.

Umi: I would say that there’s no way I did something like that but even if I did kill You I wouldn’t know… I apologize everyone, if I had not hit my head then this would be a far simpler trial.

Maki: Well, the first possibility that I can see is that You and Umi got into a fight. You would have attacked first and Umi fled farther into the Pool. Then she would have knocked over the towel rack and in You’s confusion drawn her own knife and attacked her, slitting her throat from behind and killing her instantly, before stabbing You in the back and pushing her into the water, as for how she fell, blood loss could have made her lightheaded and when she pushed You she may have fallen backwards and passed out.

Hanayo: A-Are you sure that’s really possible Maki? It seems strange, you said that the amount of blood she lost wasn’t enough to make her anemic, right?”

Maki: Of course, which is why that’s the least likely of my ideas as to how the killing happened.

Riko: Well what’s the next one Maki? You said two would label Umi as the killer so what’s the other one where Umi would be the blackened?

Maki: Well, the second would be that Umi snuck up and killed You without a struggle, then a third party came and attacked Umi, slashing her arms as she fled. Umi then knocked over the towel rack to cause a distraction but rather than chasing her, the second assailant stayed closer to the exit and was able to tackle Umi to the ground. I can’t think of any other way for her to have landed on her back so that’s what my assumption is. This one is also not very likely as the only people I can think of who could do this are Chika and Riko, but Riko wouldn’t have known anything was happening in the Pool since she would have been in Mari’s room, and Chika, as shown when she found me, You, and Umi, would have frozen in place.

Umi: You’ve said both of those are unlikely, so does that mean you believe your third option is what happened?

Maki: Yes, what I think is that You and Umi were attacked by the same third party, You was likely attacked without knowing anything was happening, and then the killer turned to Umi, attacking her. The rest of the events would be the same as what happened in my second prediction. In this situation the killer could be anyone except Umi.

Ruby: But why did they leave Umi to bleed? Why didn’t they just kill her outright?

Maki: They probably didn’t anticipate me coming to stop her bleeding, if I hadn’t been there she certainly would have died of blood loss. While it certainly would have made sense to simply kill her then and there I’m sure the killer had a reason to let her live.

Chika: Maki, I think I can rule out which of the three scenarios it was.

Maki: Oh? Tell me then.

Chika: It has to be the third one, the other two are impossible.”

Maki: And why is the Chika? What is it that proves both You and Umi were attacked by the same person?

Chika: You examined Umi’s wounds and told us they were made by the same knife that was in You’s back, so if Umi was attacked it has to be by the same person that attacked You.

Maki: Close, but not quite Chika.

Umi: What? Is there something wrong with Chika’s logic?

Maki: She’s right that the second possibility is ruled out, you can’t have killed You and been attacked by a third party, but my first theory is still valid.

Hanayo: How? You said Umi would have attacked and killed You after being chased, but if You attacked first how did Umi use the same knife that You had?

Mari: I see where Maki is going with this, she’s saying that when the towel rack was knocked down, it may have landed on You causing her to drop the knife.

Riko: Then Umi could have taken it and killed You. The first theory is still possible if we believe You was the one that brought the weapon that was used to take her own life…

Maki: So, those are the possible scenarios, one in which Umi is the killer, and one in which everyone other than Umi could be the killer. Speaking of which, Monokuma, I have a question.

Monokuma: Huh? What is it?

Maki: I noticed a new rule, that the same blackened can only kill two people. It’s unrelated to this case but in the event that there are two victims, how would we go about voting? If you told us it was the same person that killed both then that would be a massive lead, but voting for only one killing would be unfair to the second blackened, would it not?

Monokuma: Well, if that ever did happen I guess you’ll just vote twice, once for each victim. If you’re right on one and wrong on the other you all still die except for the blackened who got away with their crime. If it’s the same blackened for both and only one voting gives the right answer then since the blackened was found they’ll be executed, but since the blackened was not found then everyone else will be executed. So if one blackened kills two residents and only one voting is correct, everyone dies including the blackened!

Umi: Okay, but what does this have to do with the current trial?

Maki: Nothing, I was just curious and this was the best time to ask Monokuma in an environment where everyone would know his response.

Dia: Well, to get back on topic, Riko confirms the innocence of Ruby and Mari, correct?

Riko: Yes, the two of them were asleep at 2 in the morning. The plan was for us to wake up at 4 and go to the Courtyard to run, so I slept for the first 3 hours and Ruby woke me up at 1 in the morning. I can’t be confirmed by anyone but the two of them can’t be the killer.

Dia: Wait, you both only slept for three hours? Ruby are you okay? You’re not too tired, right?

Ruby: I’m okay sis, you don’t have to worry about me!

Dia: Of course I’ll worry about you Ruby, you’re my sister.

Maki: Ahem, the family moment is nice and all but we’re trying to hold a trial here.

Dia: R-Right, sorry Maki.

Maki: Anyways, we haven’t really had a proper discussion yet, so let’s talk about something that’s bothering me.

Umi: And what’s that?

Maki: Why stick the knife in You’s back? I wasn’t there but did the knife give any resistance when it was removed?

Rin: Yeah, I had to pull a bit for it to come out

Maki: So that means the knife being put into You’s back was the last thing that happened with it, it wasn’t reinserted to a wound. Why would the killer do that? Clearly she was already dead so putting it there seems pointless to me.

Chika: Yeah, that is weird. Why stab her an extra time?

 

Maki: So what was the reason for the knife being in You’s back

Dia: Well, that’s the same place she stabbed Chika on the first day

Maybe it was  **symbolism**

Umi: Maybe it has more to do with where You’s body was

She was **pushed into the pool** after all

Hanayo: But there was no water on the knife

the blood was dry

Rin: Maybe that’s what they wanted Kayo-chin!

maybe there’s some way that  **still did something to the knife** !

Chika: That’s it!

 

Riko: Huh? What would that do to the knife? If it didn’t get wet then there shouldn’t have been an impact on the knife.

Chika: No, but what about when it was pulled out?

Ruby: What would that do to it?

Chika: Well, when you pull something, you sort of drag your hand a little before it comes out, right?

Rin: Yeah, what does that do? Did I mess up by pulling it out?

Chika: No Rin, you did great, it’s just that when it got pulled out, that would smear it right?

Maki: I see, you’re saying it would remove any fingerprints. They can be pretty obvious in blood but I’m not sure that’s right.

Chika: What do you think it is then Maki?

Maki: Well, if I were a killer, I would want to throw as many questions out into the mix as possible, right? So by putting the knife in You’s back and putting You in the water that creates two mysteries that have no logical conclusion.

Umi: So you’re saying this isn’t something that’s worth discussing? Even though you brought the topic forward?

Maki: Exactly, it’s a moot point, I mentioned it so that we could get through it now rather than later. Now onto what I actually care about. The knife that was used. Anyone recognize it?

Mari: Yes… That’s the knife I tried to stab myself with yesterday…

Umi: What? Why would you do that? Why would you try to stab yourself?!

Ruby: D-Don’t worry about it Umi, it’s all okay now.

Maki: So, since the same knife was used to kill You and attack Umi we can say that whoever took the knife when Ruby tackled Mari is the killer, yes?

Hanayo: Hey! That’s right! Did anyone see anything? If anyone saw who took the knife we’ll know who killed You!

A moment of silence passed where nobody said anything until Maki said what we had already figured it out.

Maki: So, nobody saw who took the knife, figures. That would make the trial too easy, wouldn’t it.

“H-Hey, guys...”

Maki: So, the next subject of discussion should be trying to rule out if You could have had the knife.

“Hey, everyone, please-”

Riko: There was the second knife too, what does that have to do with the killing? Who brought it?

Rin: EVERYONE PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!

Maki: What is it Rin, you don’t have to scre-

Maki wasn’t able to finish as everyone’s attention turned to Rin, and then followed Rin’s eyes to the stand directly right of her, the stand Umi was in.

Umi’s face was a terrifying shade of blue and she was clutching the rail around her stand despite how mangled her arms were. Her other hand was around her own neck, but lightly, she wasn’t choking herself, more like she was trying to stop herself from choking.

Chika: Wh-What… Umi? Are you okay? What’s wrong?!

Umi: I-Is this… What it feels like to die… Is this what having your life drained feels like… It’s almost funny, it’s like I’m dying twice in one day… Hehe… Sorry… Kotori… I’m coming… Honoka… 

Chika: Umi! What’s wrong!?

Maki: It’s poison! Monokuma, get us an antidote!

Monokuma: Huh? But then I’d be breaking the rules by preventing a killing.

Maki: Damn it, Umi, if you’re dying anyways then tell us who the mastermind is!

Umi: Oh yeah, I guess that information would help you all, wouldn’t it…

Chika: Hold on! I’ll go back to the Medicine Room! I’ll get whatever antidotes I can find!

I turned and jumped off my stand. I ran for the doors and heard Umi’s groans behind me.

Umi: The mastermind… She’s still alive… She’s…

As I got closer to the doors I felt the panic grow in my chest. And it all peaked as I heard a series of sounds behind me

*thump*

“Ding. Ding. Ding. Dong.”

No…

“A Body has been discovered”

I don’t want to turn around…

“At the end of the current trial there will be two voting times, please continue to do your best to find the blackened!”

Riko: Ch-Chika, come back to your stand please…

Chika: Why… Why is this happening…

Monokuma: Hey! Looks like Sonoda bit the dust too, here’s a little something for the trouble.

Suddenly there were a series of beeps around the room. Riko held her Monobook up for me and I saw what it was

 

**Monokuma Special Bulletin**

Monokuma File #5.5

The second victim is Umi Sonoda

She was poisoned and died during the trial for You Watanabe’s killer

She had previously had her arms cut and was found unconscious in the Pool

She also had a concussion

 

She really died in front of us… She was killed right before our eyes and we still didn’t know the killer…

Hanayo: Wh-Wh-Wh-What- wait- how are we-

Ruby: PYAAAAAAAA

Rin: Did we really just-

Maki: EVERYONE CALM DOWN.

You could practically hear how much everyone’s hearts were racing. I don’t get it, how are we supposed to continue a trial after that…

Maki: Monokuma, do we get any time to check the body?

Monokuma: What? No! That’s all left for the investigation phase, this is the trial! No investigation is allowed!

Maki: I see, well, this wasn’t part of the plan but it’s fine I guess.

Dia: Huh? What are you talking about Maki? What plan?

Maki: Hey Chika, Can you do something for me?

Chika: What is it Maki?

Maki: Stop being a blind follower, think for yourself and put the pieces together on your own.

Chika: Huh? What do you mean? Why are you telling me this in the middle of the trial Maki?

Maki: Geez, how can you all be so slow? I wonder how you’ll all survive the next trial without me.

Riko: Maki! Explain yourself! You’re saying really scary things right now!

Maki: For the love of- Can ANYONE take a guess at who killed You?

Mari: Maki… You did it… didn’t you.

Maki: THANK YOU. Finally someone uses a few brain cells. That’s my request Chika, prove me guilty of killing the girl you loved.

Chika: Wh-What do you-

Maki: You have all the proof you need Chika, answer my questions and you’ll know without a doubt in your mind who killed You. First question, who brought the knife you found in the pool.

Chika: I-I don’t-

Maki: ANSWER ME YOU DAMN IDIOT.

Chika: I-It was probably You’s, she probably had it taped to her leg under her skirt like how Mari had her knife, then the water wetted the tape and it fell off.

Maki: Correct. Next question, was that knife ever used.

Chika: No, Umi’s cuts didn’t match that knife, they matched the ones You was killed with…

Maki: Next question, why did You have that knife.

Chika: Probably for self defense since she never used it.

Maki: In that case why was it never used to defend herself when she was killed at the pool.

Chika: Because the killer snuck up on her and killed her instantly…

Maki: Correct. Next question, who do you think killed You and cut Umi’s arms.

Chika: W-well, it’s you, right?

Maki: I don’t know, you tell me, how would I have known You and Umi went to the Pool?

Chika: You had this piece of tape on your door, it stopped the door from closing all the way even though it stayed shut. That probably stopped the soundproofing on the doors and when you heard You and Umi open their doors you followed them and killed them…

Maki: One more question Chika.

Chika: Please, just stop, can’t we vote already?

Maki: No, I have one more question for you.

Chika: What is it… I’ll answer and then we can vote you as the blackened…

Maki: How many times have I tried to take your life?

Chika: H-huh..?

Maki: You told me you would vote after you answered, so tell me every time I’ve tried to kill you and then you can vote me, though make no mistake, voting me won’t let you live.

Mari: Hold it right there! You’ve admitted to killing her! Why would voting you be wrong!?

Maki: Because, I only killed You, Umi killed herself.

Rin: Wh-What? No! There’s no way she poisoned herself!

Maki: But it’s true, the medicine room is closed at night is it not? And Chika was in my room, she can confirm I didn’t have any vials, bottles, or anything of the sort, all the medical supplies I had were books and mechanical tools used such as materials for a cast. So I couldn’t have gotten poison for her.

Chika: It’s true, there wasn’t any poison or anything that could hold poison in her room that I could see…

Ruby: W-Wait! More importantly, what did you use the motive for Maki!

Maki: Oh, so Ruby speaks during a trial and brings up an actually good point, what a rare sight, well, to mark the occasion I’ll tell you. I asked Monokuma for just one thing.

Chika: What did you ask him for Maki?

Maki: My memories.

Hanayo: Wh-What? Your memories?

Maki: Of course, I had a plan that was ruined by Umi’s suicide via poison and part of that plan was to get my memories returned. 

Chika: W-Wait! Do you remember anything important? Do you know the mastermind? Or the traitor?

Maki: Well, I do know who the traitor is now, but I think it’s better if I keep my mouth shut on this… 

Rin: Please! We need to know! What did you remember Maki!

Maki: Well, actually, the traitor’s identity wasn’t in my memories, I didn’t know who she was before the trial started. But she was able to make herself known to me during it. What my memories did tell me however, is that telling you who the traitor is would be a mistake. I also don’t know who the mastermind is, and Umi’s hint was worthless, of course she’s still alive, if the mastermind died then the game would be over. A name would have been nice.

Dia: Well what else did you remember! This is important for us to know!

Maki: There’s only one more thing I’ll tell you… 10 days, that’s how long you have left before this ends. But don’t think you can just hold it out for that long, Monokuma won’t let you.

Hanayo: What do you mean he won’t let us?

Maki: In the same way that I was able to narrow the traitor’s identity before, I found a list of all the future motives, that’s why I asked about the new motive, I needed to use it for my plan.

Chika: Wait hold on Maki, you mentioned trying to kill me, do you-

Maki: Know about your “secret messenger”? Of course I do, who do you think it was?

Chika: They kept telling me to be careful of you, and to watch my back, does that mean you were telling me to watch out because you were trying to kill me?

Maki: What? You think I was the one giving you those messages? Geez, that’s insulting, I couldn’t write that poorly if I tried.

Chika: Then who-

Maki: It was Nico, she knew I was trying to kill you, she even stopped me once.

Chika: Wait, so the first time in the Baths with Rin, that’s the only time I can think of that Nico stopped you from something when I was there…

Maki: Yes, I was going to kill both you and Rin then, since I could only kill two people I figured it would be good to let you bring someone strong like Rin to make you feel secure, but since it was Rin she would be super easy to kill, if she saw me stab you she wouldn’t run or scream, she would freeze, and then I could kill her too and pretend to be attacked and say I lost my memory like Umi did in this case.

Rin: Wait, so Nico saved my life and I didn’t even know!?”

Maki: Exactly, I’ve tried so many times to kill you Chika. The medication you didn't take for your back? That was poison that would make you look like you suffocated so everyone would assume an Aqours member had killed you after being let into your room, but you just didn’t take it for some reason. Then I was going to kill you in the Stage after Eli’s execution when I showed you the murder weapon, but Riko came in. That’s not even every time, you have no idea how much I wanted you dead before…

Chika: I almost don’t want to ask but… Why did you decide to change your mind? Why target You instead of me?

Maki: I thought she was the traitor before, she hated me, and she was meeting with Umi regularly so I figured if Umi knew the mastermind she may be talking with either her or the traitor. Honestly it’s a good thing I didn’t kill the traitor, even I would feel bad for something like that…

Dia: Maki… You’re being very cryptic, please either tell us what you know or allow us to vote for you.

Maki: Calm down now, I’m getting to the more important parts now. Why we’re here.

Rin: You know that!?

Maki: Of course, I have all my memories after all. Well, we all chose to come here, and then Monokuma came along and started up a killing game. This should be the fourth killing game I believe.

Riko: So we aren’t the first people who have been forced to kill each other…

Maki: Not at all. Also, the original name of this hotel is kind of cheesy, it’s the ‘Hope-tel’ and I hope whatever genius that came up with that is watching right now so I can tell them, you’re a dumbass.

Mari: What do you mean watching? Are people watching us kill each other?

Maki: Well, the people trying to get us out of here are, by watching it can help them find exactly where we are. Clearly we’ve moved since they would have gotten us out by now if we were in the hotel’s original location.

Hanayo: Who are they? Stop using pronouns all the time and tell us who put us here!

Maki: The Future Foundation.

Mari: Well that’s a stupid name.

Maki: Agreed, but aside from that they’re an organization-

Monokuma: Hey, are you all ready to vote yet? You don’t seem to be on topic at all.

Maki: Of course not, we still haven’t discussed Umi’s death.

Monokuma: Then talk about that! You’re in a trial so act like it!

Maki: Well, I guess Monokuma doesn’t want me talking about that, in that case I’ll tell you this as my last bit of information to you all. The next motive is unavoidable, someone will die eventually. But then you’ll come to the final motive, the one that will end the game. That motive will be your best chance to defeat Monokuma. It’s possible for five of you to escape, that’s the most you could manage. If the next killing is a suicide then there would be six of you left and you wouldn't get the final motive, the next killing needs to be one person kills another, that’s the only way for it to be possible that five of you get out of here. So please, pick your five survivors wisely, and defeat the Future Foundation.

Chika: W-Wait, defeat? But didn’t you say they made this as the hope-tel? That’s the opposite of despair, so isn’t that a good thing?

Maki: You think that just because they aren’t bad they’re good? Think about it, sure we agreed to this project but we had no choice, we were to be locked up. We were going to become slaves to the world, performing constantly in the name of this stupid hope. I’d rather be dead than live a life like that, so come on, it’s time.

Ruby: W-Wait, time for what? You can’t be-

Maki: Serious? Of course I am. Vote for me as You’s murderer and Umi has her own, I had no access to poison as Chika said. I also don’t have any pockets or anything else like that so you know I don’t have anything on my person. Umi poisoned herself to escape this game and I killed You. That’s what you must vote for.

Ruby: Wait, Maki.

Maki: What Ruby?

Ruby: When did Umi poison herself? And how do you know none of us poisoned her? You always point out the tiny details but you’re being vague about this…

Maki: Simple, I saw her swallow the pill, after knocking over the towel rack she put her hand in her pocket then up to her mouth before trying to rush past me. I tackled her causing her to hit the ground and lose her memory. She probably decided it would be better to die from poison than continue to play this game, and if she had gotten past me, well, you saw how long it took for that poison to kill her, she would have been able to go to the Medicine Room and get an antidote if she wanted to in the morning. To answer the next question, I was keeping Umi from bleeding out so she could tell us who the Mastermind was before the poison killed her, though I guess she decided she couldn’t tell us by name for some reason.

Mari: Actually, I have one more thing I want to know Maki… I’ve been thinking about it for a while but it’s a bit… weird to ask…

Maki: What is it?

Mari: Well um, you said you couldn’t hold any poison anywhere since you aren’t wearing clothes with pockets, but that’s not entirely true… there is somewhere you could fit a pill bottle… it’s just a bit… delicate…

Dia: Mari you better not-

Mari: Of course I’m not going to make her strip to prove she’s innocent with Umi! But there’s another way I want her to prove it.

Maki: What is it Mari, I can assure you there’s no bottle there.

Mari: Just do a little gymnastic work, a flip, maybe a cartwheel, if you had something there you would be pretty clumsy and anything you had would probably come loose, that’s fine right?

Maki then stepped off of her stand and flipped in a line all the way across the room before returning to her stand.

Maki: That should suffice for you Mari, should it not?

Mari: Yes, I believe you now, I can’t think of anywhere else you could hold poison other than your mouth which would be suicide.

Maki: Good, then you all should be able to accept that Umi poisoned herself, yes? If you want you can go over the case one last time Chika, I’m sure a lot of them are lost.

Chika: O-Ok, that’s fine I guess.

 

Chika: It all started when Mari tried to stab herself in the Cafeteria. Even though we had just gotten the motive the blackened in this case already knew what the motive was going to be and had formulated their plan. When Ruby tackled Mari and made her drop her knife, the blackened picked it up to use as a murder weapon. Then, that night, they heard You and Umi leave the west hall. This was thanks to a mechanism they made using tape to stop their room from being soundproofed. After following either one or both of them the blackened remained hidden until they had let their guard down. I’m sure both You and Umi were looking away from the Pool’s entrance at this point and the blackened made their move. The first one attacked was You since she was stronger, faster, and a quicker thinker. The killer wanted to make sure the rest of what she did went according to plan. Umi, seeing You killed in front of her attempted to flee, pushing a towel rack down, not knowing that the killer wasn’t even following her. Instead they were standing at the door, Umi’s only route of escape. In a last ditch effort she decided to swallow a poison tablet she had and attempted to rush past the killer, but before she could get very far she was tackled to the ground and given a concussion that made her lose her memories of the last 24 hours. The killer decided to use this to her advantage and tried to keep Umi alive. They wanted Umi to tell us who the Mastermind is before she died of the poison. Then the killer stabbed You’s back and pushed the body into the pool. They left Umi’s body where it was and went back to their room, returning at 3:30 and leaning over Umi’s body to stop the bleeding until the trial could happen. And during the trial the poison started to take its effect. Umi died without even remembering she had poisoned herself, even she didn’t know that her death was caused by suicide.

 

Chika: There’s only one person who could have so many plans and exploit them so perfectly, the killer in this case is you, Maki Nishikino!

 

Maki: There you go, you’re right Chika, now then, Monokuma, we’re ready to vote.

Monokuma: Alrighty then! Let’s get this started! First you’ll vote for who killed Watanabe, then it’ll be Sonoda, now without further ado, it’s voting time!

 

The panel lit up in front of me and I knew what I had to do, I selected Maki first, and when the selection screen came up a second time I selected Umi. Then I waited as everyone else input their own votes.

 

Monokuma: Okay! The votes are in! It seems we have a unanimous eight votes for Maki as You’s killer, but for Umi it seems to be split a little.

Chika: What? Did someone not vote for Maki?

Monokuma: We have six votes for Umi, but two people voted for Maki again. Strange.

Maki: … I did it… 

Dia: What do you mean Maki? You did what?

Maki: I ended this game, it’s all over, it’s not the way I wanted but this game is finished…

Rin: W-Wait, Maki, what are you talking about? You told us we had two more motives to do!

Maki: I LIED IDIOT, do you really think Umi would take her own life like that? She has so much to live for, Mari’s our resident suicide freak, I poisoned Umi, I killed her, now everyone is going to die, no one wins, though I am curious who voted for me, I wonder which two of you saw through me?

Mari: W-Wait! Hold on! How did you carry the poison if you’re the one who poisoned her! You just did a bunch of flips so-

Maki: I figured this would come up so I brought an extra, here’s how I transported it.

Suddenly Maki reached up to her head and brushed her hair to the side.

Hanayo: W-What? Your earrings? But those are studs, you couldn’t carry poison in a stud!

Maki: Not quite…

Maki then put her finger in her ear and pulled out a small capsule about the size of my fingertip.

Maki: That’s how I carried it.

Chika: Wait, but that means, if you poisoned her we voted wrong?

Maki: Exactly, now everyone dies and the game ends. Sorry Chika, you couldn’t cheat death this time.

Monokuma: Ahem! Everyone! If you’d let me finish and stop interrupting so rudely, I’m going to announce if you were correct in your votes.

Maki: There’s no point, we already-

Monokuma: First off You Watanabe’s killer! You were all right, the blackened for her was Maki Nishikino! And for Umi Sonoda-

Riko: We know… We got it wrong and now we’re all going to be punished… 

Monokuma: You were all absolutely positively right! Sonoda was the one to take her own life!

 

**_TRIAL END_ **

 

“W-Wait Wha- Sis, are we not going to die?”

“What the hell? I was the one who gave her the poison! How did she kill herself!”

“You know Nishikino, maybe you should take another look at that Monokuma File I gave you… Then you would understand why your plan failed…”

Maki pulled out her Monobook and began tapping away at the screen.

“What the hell are you-”

Suddenly Maki’s face became a ghastly pale as she ran around the ring to where Umi’s body lay.

“No, no, I was too hasty, how did I overlook this?”

Maki knelt down on the floor and lifted Umi’s shirt to reveal where her hand was on her stomach, and there it was.

Blood.

And a knife.

Riko opened the Monokuma File again and I saw what Maki had overlooked, knowing it now made it so obvious despite how subtle it was at the time.

“The cause of death… It was never specified, Maki’s poison didn’t kill her, that knife did.”

“This is… The knife that you found. The one You had when I pushed her into the pool. I guess You’s weapon found its mark eventually… Hmph, I see how it is”

“How what is Maki?”

“It’s obvious, Umi’s first and only successful lie, she truly fooled us all Chika…”

“What? What lie?”

“She knew everything, she never lost her memory. She knew I poisoned her, she knew I would try to make it seem like a suicide. When Chika asked what she remembered I’m sure that’s when her lie began, she knew I would pass her death as suicide, so rather than telling everyone the truth she had witnessed, she toyed with me. I was duped, Umi beat me.”

“So this means… Maki is the only one being executed today…”

“I’m not sure about that, Dia.”

“Upupupu, of course you are Nishikino, you were found as the blackened, let me just take that knife off your hands, the poison you have won’t work before the execution ends anyways.”

“That doesn’t matter Monokuma, I die on my terms, you won’t be the one to execute me. But first things first, Chika, I have something for you.”

“Huh? What is it?”

Maki then walked up so close that I could barely hear the words she whispered to me. “Use the page numbers, shift 5 right, don’t let anyone see this notebook, no matter how much you trust them, none of the notes inside mean anything, the page numbers are all that matter.”

Maki then thrust the black notebook she had me get from her room into my arms and stepped back away from me.

“Now let’s get this execution started.”

“You really are an enigma Nishikino… Oh well! I agree with the idea of starting the execution already, I don’t want you saying any more.”

Monokuma pulled out his mallet as the large red button rose before him for the fifth time. He plunged the mallet into the button and Maki’s execution began.

 

When I looked at the screen Maki was in a white room. It looked almost like a hospital room. Maki was standing in the middle of the room with her arms crossed staring Monokuma dead in the eye. Monokuma was dressed as a surgeon and was standing on a cart with a tray full of scalpels and other surgical tools. The first thing Monokuma did was throw a scalpel at Maki’s shoulder, but she only leaned to the side and it missed. Monokuma continued to throw things and when he ran out of stuff in his tray Maki didn’t have a single scratch on her. Then Maki sprung into action, running behind her and grabbing a scalpel from the pile behind her. She began to thrust it towards her own throat but Monokuma hit her with a fan, which caused her to flinch and instead of the throat she stabbed her eye. I couldn’t hear anything but I felt Maki’s scream reverberate through my bones. With the scalpel still sticking out of her right eye she bent down and grabbed another scalpel in one fluid motion. She moved some distance away and watched Monokuma before beginning to raise the scalpel to her own neck once again, but as she raised it a large scythe came out of the wall and began to slice towards Maki. I couldn’t help but look away as the scythe made contact at her neck. When I turned back to the screen Maki’s head was gone. The white room was now soaked red with her blood with the exception of one spot. In her right hand was the scalpel, and there wasn’t a single drop of blood on it.

 

“PYAAAAAAAAA”

“Ruby! Don’t look, but don’t close your eyes! You’ll only see the image in your mind if you do!”   
“H-How… That was too much Monokuma! How could you do that!”

“Wow Takami, I crush a girl, skewer one, one gets eaten alive by birds, and a little decapitation is where you draw the line? You should see some of the other stunts I’ve pulled. Did you know if you spin a person fast enough they turn into butter?”

I was done trying to talk to this bear. He would never understand decency or humanity. These executions kept getting worse and worse and it made me want to throw up. Maki gave me a spark though. She said that 5 of us could escape. Me, Riko, Ruby, Dia, Mari, Hanayo, and Rin. Only two more of us had to die. We could use Monokuma’s final motive to escape from this hell. But Maki also brought more questions. First was the notebook, what did shift 5 right mean? I’m sure it’s a code of some kind, I should try to figure it out later. Another question she brought up though, the Future Foundation. Who were they? Why would they lock us up for the sake of hope? Maki said death was the greater mercy than their ideal hope, was she right? I don’t know… I guess I’ll just have to wait… Wait for Monokuma’s next motive and the killing Maki said was inevitable. Wait for two more people to die, then the last five of us who remain can defy Monokuma. That’s all we can do is wait for Monokuma’s last motive and not kill anyone. Maki told us if we did that then the five of us who are left can leave. She admitted to trying to kill me many times but I trust her information. I don’t want to let her down. I can’t forget her last words to me before the trial…

‘You’ve cheated death, you have power here, that’s why I chose you Chika, don’t let me down.’

Those words… The cheating death had to do with her many failed murder attempts, the power must be the same thing Umi and Nozomi had kept saying made me useful, Maki chose me to be the one she gave all her information to. But not letting her down, that’s the part I don’t get. What does she want from me… What does she want me to do? Maybe the answers are in this notebook, that’s what I thought as the Commons Area began to move again and we were brought back to our living hell, the Hotel of Despair.

**_CHAPTER 5: END_ **

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah, this chapter didn't have much of a trial. It was really "Maki's info dump: the chapter"
> 
> don't worry though, the rest won't be like this, there will be legitimate trials for the last few chapters ;0
> 
> thank you if you read all of this and I hope you look forward to chapter 6! I've been flipping between 3 different victims that could all work and so look forward to the chapter where even I don't know who dies next!


End file.
